What are the four fundamental elements of all computer systems?

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Last updated on August 29th, 2020 at 09:45 am

Computer

A computer is a multipurpose electronic device that can receive, store, process data and deliver information. A computer takes data such as numbers, text, images etc. as input and then process those data and converts those to useful information. Additionally, a computer can also store data and information both for future use. Also a computer can perform scheduled tasks.   Computers are programmed devices. Computer programmers write programs or software for computer which actually takes input, process it and outputs information.

Four elements of computer

Hardware

Computer Hardware is any part of the computer that can be touched. These are primarily electronic devices used to build up the computer. Computer Hardware actually perform the computing operations along with taking input and sending the computed result as output or to storing that. Processor, Memory Devices, Monitor, Printer etc. are computer hardware. Monitor is used to display output such as video, texts etc. while Printer is used to print documents, images etc. These are electronic devices and can be touched. Both monitor and printer are output devices.

Software

Software, by definition, is a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that performs different tasks on a computer system. Software can specify the processors instruction through which the processor can change the state of computer hardware in a predefined sequence. Briefly, computer software is a language in which computer speaks. There are various types of software to do various tasks. Operating Systems such as Microsoft Windows 10, Word processing applications such Microsoft Word etc. as computer software. We can’t touch these as they are all virtual. But we can use them using various input devices and can get output from them using different output devices. For example, we can use keyboard to type into Microsoft Word and can see what we types in the monitor, we can also print out what we typed using a printer.

Read Next: Differences between hardware and software.

Data

One or a set or multiple sets of information used in a process to obtain targeted result or goal are called data. In other words, pieces of information which by itself may or may not be meaningful but useful when connected or used with other pieces of information to form a piece of information that are meaningful, are called data. There are various differences between data and information. An information generated by processing a set of data can be used as data for another process. Data is primarily of two types, numeric data and non-numeric data. However, data can be of various types such as numbers, texts, images etc.

Users

The person who uses the computer is the user. However, beside human, another device can become user of a computer too. No only another device but also a software or program can be treated as a user. Actually, anyone or anything who or which uses, instructs or operates the computer to compute is an user of the computer.

Functions of Computer

1. Program Execution
2. Input
3. Processing
4. Output

Program Execution

Among the 5 key parts in micro-computer, there are  memory and storage devices in it for storing data and executable codes. Generally large set of data is stored in storage devices such as hard disk drives etc. When instructed, computer loads executable data from storage to memory devices such as RAM etc. and executes them. Computer executes instructions in several steps.

Input

Though a computer can be operated from stored scheduled set of instructions, but those are not general purpose computers. General purpose computers are supposed to take instructions or inputs from its users. The devices which are used to input data or signal or instruction to computer are called input devices such as keyboard, mouse etc. Computer performs tasks based on input from user along with performing other tasks which might not be required any further input or instructions.

Processing

The processing of data is totally depended on what the user want and what the instructions are supposed to do with the data. For example, if user wanted add 4 and 5, the computer performs this simple math as per the instructions and also outputs as per the instruction. The task that a computer do in between taking input and sending back output, is processing

Output

When computer finishes processing data as per instructions, it outputs the data back. However, its not obvious that the output will occur as the instruction could be to store the result of processing in storage device, or use the result of processing as input for the next processing etc. Computer uses various hardware devices such as monitor, speaker, printer etc. to output information.

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9 Answers

The four main components of computer system are input devices, output devices, Memory and Central Processing Unit (CPU). Input devices are used to provide input and instructions to be processed to the computer. These devices are also called peripheral devices and include mouse, keyboard, microphone, scanner etc. Output devices include monitor and printers which are used for displaying the results of the instructions processed by the computer. CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the main component of the computer which is responsible for data processing. CPU itself has many subcomponents such as mother board, registers, buses etc to perform the processing operations. CPU uses memory (another important component of computer) to store the instructions either permanently or temporarily. Memory then has further types such as RAM, ROM and secondary storage devices. All these components work together to perform the various commands given by the user.

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There are 4 primary components in computer1) Input2) Output     3) Processing     

4) Secondary Storage

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ProcessorInput DevicesOutput DevicesMain Memory

Secondary Memory

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The four components of computer system are as follows 1. Central Processing Unit2. Systems Mother Board3. Power Supply Unit

4. Systems Case

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Software

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Hello everyone. I agree with these answers. But everything can be considered in much more detail. Of course such parts like CPU, memory, input and output units, system Bus are important. But none of this will work without the right power source! So you should know how to choose 100% relevant PC power supply, here is an article about this https://www.inversegeek.com/features/how-to-choose-a-pc-power-supply-buying-guide/ for you!

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There are four basic components of computer which include Case, Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse. Case consists of all computer hardware including Power Supply, Motherboard, Hard disk drive, CD-ROM drive, Floppy drive,  DVD devices, Tape backup devices, and some others. Motherboard further consists of three important components including Microprocessor, Memory and Drive controllers. For getting further details click on the link:

Components of computer

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Actually the four component of a Computer System are:1.  Hardware2.  Operating System3.  Application Programs

4.  Users

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The primary operators of the computer are users or end-users

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